The invention disclosed herein relates generally to data storage systems in computer networks and, more particularly, to improvements in storing and tracking electronic data.
Storage architecture used by individual computers or data stores to store electronic data typically includes volatile storage media such as Random Access Memory RAM, and one or more nonvolatile storage devices such as hard drives, tape drives, optical disks, and other storage devices that form a part of or are directly associated with an individual computer. A network of computers such as a Local Area Network LAN or a Wide Area Network WAN, typically store electronic data via servers or stand-alone storage devices accessible via the network. Storage devices are generally connected to one individual computer or a network of computers. Examples of network storage devices include networkable tape drives, optical libraries, Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks RAID, CD-ROM jukeboxes, and other devices. Network storage devices commonly known in the art often include slots in which tapes or other storage media may be stored, drives in which storage media may be placed for performing read or write operations or other storage operations, and a robotic arm which is used to place the tapes or storage media into the drives.
Storage media, such as tapes, media cartridges, CD-ROMs, disks or other media capable of storing data, may be used, for example, to store electronic data. Media may be fixed or removable. Fixed media is media that remains in hardware in which the media is read or written to. Removable media is media that may be removed from hardware, such as a storage device tape drive, in which the media is read or written to. Storage media that is removable is convenient for storing data because it may be removed from a storage device and moved from one location to another location for performing read and write operations, storage operations, or other use. The tapes or other storage media may be stored locally, for example to a system device or facility or to an offsite location. For example, third party vendors providing offsite data storage facilities, such as Iron Mountain, Inc. of Boston, Mass., store data for archiving or disaster recovery purposes. Typically, storage of the storage media to a local device or offsite location is provided by transferring the storage media between system devices or between system devices and the offsite location.
Various types and grades of storage media each have specific attributes, such as purchase price, cost to maintain and track, failure rate, capacity, and other characteristics. For example, one type of storage media may have a relatively low failure rate, but may have a relatively high purchase price and maintenance and tracking cost. Conversely, another type of storage media may be relatively inexpensive to purchase, maintain and track, but have a relatively high failure rate. Each type of storage media may be appropriate for a particular aspect of an enterprise storage plan, which may include different clients or data types. For example, one type of storage media may be used for a particular storage operation, another type of media may be used for short term storage and yet another type used for long term storage. In general, existing storage management systems may use more than one type of storage media in storage operations.
The status and location of (and other information relating to) each of the various types of media items may be monitored using a tracking system. Some existing storage systems have the capability to track individual items of storage media within a local or networked storage device, for example, the physical location of the media.
When storage media is transferred out of a storage device and exported to a remote or offsite storage location, existing storage management systems typically communicate with the offsite storage company to track the location of the offsite storage media or container of media. Offsite storage companies typically have a proprietary tracking system which may not interface automatically with an enterprise storage management system. This may result in inefficiencies caused by delays in locating and obtaining storage media stored at offsite storage facilities.